Alex Roberts

Yo that's hexadecimal from reboot

Anyway the writing is good, the design is nice to look at, and I had a good time running this for some friends at my local rpg meetup. Anyone looking for a new DftQ thing, please check this out!!!!!

It's on StorySynth here too: btd-synth.chromegarden.games

(It's not that it reminded me of Digimon, but it had a slight flavour of my early days online in the Digimon fandom. And a STRONG note of the forum I once found of young people wishing to the point of madness that they would soon be chosen to escape into the Digiverse.)

Layers and layers of memory, nostalgia, longing, expectation, interpretation. You won't be surprised to learn the "teens on a forum" bit was my favourite.

I'm not really into portal/isekai fiction and I haven't seen I Saw The TV Glow, but I remember being a potent mix of imaginative and lonely.

Brave the Dreamer is about a group of people who had the experience of being transported to a fantasy world in childhood. But it's about those people connecting on an internet forum as teens, then falling out of touch, then reconnecting again as adults.

A good DftQ game is all about subjectivity and uncertainty: conflicting narratives, contested histories. That's what allows a group of players to answer questions individually and not get tied up in "what if our answers don't match" etc.

Brave the Dreamer - Chrome Garden Games | DriveThruCards.com When you were young, at that tender, malleable age, you touched the Dream... Brave the Dreamer is a game about an enth

One of the BEST Descended from the Queen games I've played, Brave the Dreamer by @amyhuang.bsky.social is now available! I'm so excited about this!

btd.chromegarden.games

the good people of r/segasaturn are not ready for this level of discourse

But the first thing you see after the opening cutscene is a bunch of gals to choose from. Are you picking your main character? No. You are choosing which anime babe you want to *own* your character.

the Petplay SRPG we all need but don't deserve

A game I truly wish had a cult following (and an eng patch) is BLACK/MATRIX. Some dodgy machine translation tells me this is one of the hornier games on the system. Way hornier than any of the nudie mahjongs. The game looks like this...

screenshot of some japanese dialogue with a long necked sad man

BAROQUE fans are extremely my kinda people nervetower.neocities.org

Aesthetically this game puts the Saturn's jagged/muddy looks to strong use. And yet nothing else on the Saturn looks like it. Great story, innovative designs, makes me feel cold but like not physically cold. 10/10

comparing screenshots from the sega saturn and playstation versions

The first thing that happens in BAROQUE is someone giving you a gun with which to kill god.

And DON'T let me catch you playing the Wii, PS1, or PS2 remakes. I will slap it right out of your hands. Full explanation: nervetower.neocities.org/lore5_versions

video game controller with one of the first analog control sticks

opening title screen

I can't say enough about BAROQUE, a hellish roguelike that makes me wish I was better at roguelikes. Incredibly thankful for the English translation patch, and for the opportunity to play this with the analog stick controller (which, like Sonic R and NiGHTS, it kinda needs).

sega saturn packaging featuring a man in pain

sega saturn packaging featuring a cute little guy

This thread has been brought to a sudden halt by my fixation on Bust-a-Move 2. Presenting the North American and Japanese box art here without further comment

IPR is always the coolest booth at the con. And look, they have Star Crossed: Love Letters!

Yay!

In my experience, yes. A lot of UUs I've met are ex- something elses

I was so close to mentioning the safety pin mechanic in the podcast with Sharang but genuinely could not remember if it was real or merely a horny urban legend

Sharang and I have been hollering some very cool and important and scholarly perspectives into some microphones; Sam is an angel for editing it and you are gonna have so much fun listening to it

I received a long and detailed reply from Janeapp, which did not address most of my concerns but does tell me that they're getting lots of similar feedback. They did, however, emphasize that the data is not being used to "train" other LLMs.

Right? We all hate the paperwork. Nobody got into this for the paperwork. But complete cognitive offloading is simply... not doing your job

They claim it is PIPEDA/HIPPA compliant, and they have a good track record with data collection/storage policy, so I am also concerned about this but not sure.

Affordable Counseling | Affordable Therapy | Open Path Collective Open Path connects clients in need with mental health professionals who offer affordable therapy for $40-70 per session.

openpathcollective.org is great btw - like most counsellors I know I maintain two sliding-scale spots in my schedule and open path makes it easy to communicate my availability and get matched with someone who needs it.

And now I can add to my endorsement: they're "AI"-free!

2. The founder of Open Path, a nonprofit that helps connect people with low-cost therapy, sent me a beautiful email last week firmly stating their no-"AI" commitment.

"It's nonsense, this fever, and we're not going along with it."

hell yeah

Counsellors are not the most tech-savvy group of people, and I don't blame any particular person for being swayed by the current wave of pro-"AI" propaganda. But tell your counsellor not to fuck with it; they have an ethical obligation to do so if you ask.

I have already sent them a long email about why this is wasteful, useless, and could be actively harmful. What YOU need to know is that you have every right to:

- ask your therapist if they use JaneApp
- ask them if they use any "AI" tools in their practice
- tell them to knock it the fuck off

1. A popular practice management software (thing that lets you schedule appointments, keep files in one place, host video sessions etc) company called Jane just emailed me about their "first AI-Powered feature" called "AI Scribe." Already available in the US, now in Canada.
vimeo.com/1101315691

Briefly acknowledging I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor to give you two important updates about the use of "AI" (LLMs) in my field:

Yes, maybe what's helpful is that donations allow the viewer to ask, rather than tell.

Thank you, you are a great host!